For the Polar Bear Swim Club, it was one last chance to compete in Yellowknife before the curtain falls on their season.
More than five dozen of the club's swimmers hit the water at the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool from May 11 to 13 for the fifth annual Konge Construction Spring Meet. It ended up being a Yellowknife-only meet as the Mackenzie Muskrats from Inuvik, Hay River Lions and Fort Smith Hurricanes were unable to get into town.
The usual suspects were doing their thing, such as Leo Konge in the boys 13-14 division as he took top spot, winning all but one of his races. Gabriel Leclerc was king of the boys 15 and over division as he had no trouble winning all seven of his races. Jacob Mitchener was also a winner as he won the boys 9-10 division with a sweep of his seven races.
On the girls side, Alexanna Kapraelian took top spot in the girls 9-10 division by winning six of her seven races while Mina Lockhart was perfect in seven races to win the girls 11-12 division.
Jane Mooney, NWT Swimming's technical director, was observing from the pool deck and said she liked what she saw from Lockhart over the course of the weekend.
“Mina is breaking all of her sister's (Effie Lockhart) records that she set when she was in that age category,” she said.
Mina broke two of her sister's records: the 50-metre and 100-metre butterfly, both of which were once held by her older sister.
Mooney was also impressed with what she saw from Kapraelian and Zach Young, who competed in the 9-10 boys division and finished second behind Mitchener.
“They are definitely two swimmers to watch for the future,” she said. “It's obvious people like Sharon Lockhart trained them well and got them well-prepared for the meet.”
For most of the club's swimmers, this was the final big event of their season but a sizable portion are still in training mode. A total of 28 swimmers will be making the trip to Kamloops, B.C., next month for the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack Invitational Meet. Unlike the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool, which is a short-course pool, this will be a long-course meet in a 50-metre Olympic-size pool.